Hump Day Holeshot: The C6 Commercial That Rubbed The PTA Wrong

Oh the nanny state that we live in. It started when I was a kid. Thanks to Al and Tipper Gore, all the music I wanted to buy had big black-and-white “Parental Advisory” decals slapped on the covers. Next came the video game ratings. Then came the police pulling over kids riding their bicycles without helmets. Thankfully I was driving then, but seriously folks, cut it out already!

For whatever reason, people want to take the parenting out of parents, the accountability out of being an adult and the childhood away from children. So much for “teaching people principles and letting them lead their own lives.”

So when we stumbled across this goofy Corvette commercial for the then-new C6 ‘Vette with the big letters “BANNED” written in the title, we had to sigh. The fun, raucous ad portrays a 10-year-old behind the wheel of a bright red coupe laying waste to the brand new Goodyear Eagle run-flats, as well as blatantly defying all traffic laws and laws of physics to boot.

I remember this commercial debuting during the Super Bowl, and if I recall, the biggest news about the ad wasn’t the car, the kid or the special effects, but the use of a Rolling Stones song, “Jumping Jack Flash” for some sort of licensing hoopla. Unlike Dodge’s comically sexist “Man’s Last Stand” this Corvette’s “the car of your dreams” slogan was overtly unoffensive yet somehow the complaint that Chevrolet was encouraging children to joyride their father’s car. Yup, that was their complaint.